GENESIS XL- JOSEPH IN PRISON 73 Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me; 18 And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out. 19 And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled. 20 And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison. 21 ¶ But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison: and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. 23 The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper. Chapter 40 1 The butler and baker of Pharaoh in prison. 4 Joseph hath charge of them. 5 He interpreteth their dreams. 20 They come to pass according to his interpretation. 23 The ingratitude of the butler. ND it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers. 3 And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound. 4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them: and they continued a season in ward. 5 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. 6 And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad. 7 And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly to-day? 8 And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you. 9 And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me; 10 And in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it 74 GENESIS XLI-PHARAOH'S DREAM budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes: 11 And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. 12 And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days: 13 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler. 14 But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house: 15 For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon. 16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets' on my head: 17 And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head. 18 And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days: 19 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee. 20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birth-dav, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. 21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand: 22 But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him. Chapter 41 1 Pharaoh's two dreams. 25 Joseph interpreteth them. 33 He giveth Pharaoh counsel. 38 Joseph is advanced. 50 He begetteth Manasseh and Ephraim. 54 The famine beginneth. ND it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river. 2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven wellfavoured kine and fat-fleshed; and they fed in a meadow. The Dispersal of the Nations FROM THE SERIES BY JULIUS SCHNORR. + "So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city."—Gen., 11, 8. OD read the hearts of the wicked people of Babel, and punished them in the very way that they had feared. He made their might of no avail, took from them their power, and destroyed them as a nation, scattering them over the face of the earth. The huge tower and great walled city by which they had hoped to perpetuate their strength, plunged them into dissension. They quarrelled over their work, and grew mutually suspicious. Falsehood was bred in the world, and a man's tongue no longer spoke the language of his heart. "Let us go down," God is represented as saying, “and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." They fled from one another. Thus the descendants of Ham lost their early power. Then came the days of the "Semites," the descendants of Shem, whose names are carefully recorded, at least in the line of the "first-born," an ascendancy regarded as highly important among the Hebrews. Shem had been the first-born in the eleventh generation from Adam. In the fourteenth came Eber, whose name is given as the source of the word Hebrews. Then in the twentieth generation came Abram or Abraham, who stands as the chief figure brought out in the story of the patriarchs. |